What I’ve Learned

What a joy this class has been to take.  At the beginning I realized not only how big the world was geographically, but how small it could become just through the development of technology.  The World Wide Web is what’s done it.  Through studying the history of the United States it is clear to see that the moment the Internet was developed life began to change rapidly.  Not just in terms of education, but financially, and confidence grew in the citizens.  America was suddenly the great mediator of the world.  We cannot take credit for all of the success we have had, it has come because of our ability to communicate with professionals outside of the country.  The opportunity for enthusiasts all over the world to communicate has and continues to enable them to create machines, medical devices, and so forth that spanned much further than just the U.S. borders. 

There has been a great amount of safety provided to individuals as a result of the Internet.   Millions of jobs have been created due to its great need.  Those unfamiliar with the Internet need call-in services to assist them in their struggles.  Accountants, business owners, grocery stores, students, hospitals, cell-phone companies (the list could go on and on) all need the power of the World Wide Web.  Many did not believe in its capabilities when it was up and coming, but now, today, there is not a single human being on the planet that has not been affected by its capacity.  Ever since I was a young student in elementary school computers have been a central focus in my education.  In order to complete my science fair project I researched the Rainbow Arch, compiled a Word Document of every interesting fact I found, and then proceeded to form a poster with all that I thought appropriate for the project - every point along the way, involving the computer.  However, three months ago I thought this evolution of the computer and all that it encompasses was a wonderful thing! Upon learning about its capabilities now and especially coming up in the very near future, humans are becoming less and less needed. 

There is less and less of a need for teachers and schools.  Children (their parents to be more accurate) are now finding a more ‘efficient’ way to be educated, and for less money.  Computers are doing the job.  There is something to be said for the human-to-human interaction…especially in a classroom environment when understanding is difficult and a little encouragement is all that is needed.

Consistency is always something we as humans have struggled with.  If one is consistently precise, that is determined as professionalism.  Computers are just that.  And because of these two traits (precision and consistency) it is determined by professionals that computers will soon be more capable than a human to live life!  The human race is in danger of its own creations.  Bombs have been brought up numerous times through the course of this class.  They certainly are a form of this ongoing technology and, just as mentioned above, this kind of technology disrupts the human-to-human interaction that would otherwise cause us to do things we would think twice about.

Overall, my eyes have been opened to the blessings and curses of the truly recently discovered Internet.  It has not been long since the technology has been on this earth and it won’t take long for it to overpower our lives, if it hasn’t already.  If there were anything we can do to protect our posterity, and ourselves it would be to seek for relationships among those around us before we seek for relationships with that which can only be found online.  What a positive force for good it can be in our lives, if used in the proper way.